Bear Kills 11-Year-Old After Dragging Boy From Tent

"AMERICAN FORK, Utah — An 11-year-old boy was attacked and killed by a black bear as he slept in a tent with his family, police said.

The boy, sleeping alone in a section of the large tent, screamed before he was dragged away in his sleeping bag Sunday night in a canyon about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, said sheriff's Lt. Dennis Harris.

The boy's body was found about 400 yards from the tent in the direction of another campsite where a bear sighting had been reported earlier in the weekend, Harris said.

Authorities were searching for the bear Monday.

American Fork Canyon is a popular camping destination. Harris said the family was camping about two miles up a dirt road from a popular campground."

There are a dozen or so campgrounds in a 15 mile radius of American Fork, and Utah's gun laws are not so draconian as to prohibit a proper weapon. 11 years old and he's in the food chain. I hope the father spends the rest of his life without a good nights sleep and that's being charitable. He screams and no one came to his aid? The bear just dragged him away as they cowered? Incredible.

UPDATE

AMERICAN FORK, Utah — "Wildlife officers wounded a bear Monday, hours after an 11-year-old boy was snatched from his family's tent and killed, a rare fatal attack in Utah's Wasatch Mountains.

With 26 dogs assisting them in the search, authorities were confident that the bear that was shot was the same one that ripped through the tent shortly before midnight Sunday.

"The dogs are on the scent. ... We're hopeful this bear will be taken shortly," Jim Karpowitz, director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said at an 11 a.m. MDT news conference.

The boy, his mother, stepfather and a 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent in a primitive camping area, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

The stepfather heard a scream, and the boy and his sleeping bag were gone...

"When it's hot and dry like this, bears are short of food," Karpowitz said.

The Utah wildlife agency and the U.S. Forest Service were pursuing the wounded bear with the help of a helicopter. It was described as a male, possibly 300 pounds and "jet black."

Stop the music, stop the music...

I'll forgo commenting upon the 26 dogs. As a society we sure know how to respond after the horse has left the barn. But why wasn't the general public warned that the local bear population was short on food. Sure, it's up to each and every full grown man to know such things and protect his family accordingly, but that obviously wasn't the case in this situation. And please now, the old man heard a scream and the boy was gone? Just like that? From their own tent? I thought it was a bear they were after and not Houdini's ghost.